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Show A XKKDKI) LKSSOX With the clouds of war looming darkly over the country; with plots and counter plots against the peace of our people; with food disturbances In the large cities; and with the price hooster stalking abroad In the land, truly It Is a time when the sober sense of the American people should be called Into use. Hut we are unlike any other people peo-ple on the globe. There seems to be Bcmethlng In the very air we breathe that makes for a different outlook on life from that of any other country. coun-try. No other land can vie with us In the vastness of its resources. The Increase in our national wealth during dur-ing the last two decades would make Croesus appear a piker, and beside our own magnificence the glories of Solomon are as the moonlight to the radiant orb of day. Our strength and our resources are boundless and limitless. lim-itless. But because of these very facts we find ourselves as a people standing on the very brink of national disaster. We are the most confidently careless care-less people on earth, hence find ourselves our-selves now engaged in a gigantic conflict con-flict and lamentably unprepared for the task before us. What boots us that our resources in men and material mater-ial are so vast? Those resources as are the latent heat of the coal undeveloped un-developed and unmobilized. A stren. uous campaign of preparation is on, but the one absolutely essential element ele-ment time is in a great measure denied us. Then we are the most magnificent, ly wasteful people in the world. Be side our national extravagance; the prodigality of kfngs is as pinching economy. And this trait, too, is threatening to be our undoing. Having Hav-ing by oair own royal extravagance consumed much, and by shipment from the country consumed much more, we find ourselves facing a demand de-mand for unlimited supplies and with practically empty storehouses. What matters it that other crops may bo raised? That same element time may be denied us e'er the insistent demand is upon us. The remedy? Several. In the first place, export nothing that is urgently needed in this country. coun-try. But perhaps you say that the European nations must be fed. Granted, but are we under obligations obliga-tions to feed them and let our own people suffer for food? And was it by any act of ours that the bulk of their men are now fighting when they Bhould be at peace and producing? It is well to care for our allies to the limit of possibilities, but our own interests in-terests must take precedence. Next, get after the price booster. If there is any particular class of humans if such they can be called to whom prison garb would be actually ac-tually becoming, is these gentry. Without mercy themselves, they deserve de-serve none; without pity, they can i except none. Void even of a sense of j Justice, they should have meted out j to them the justice of "an eye for an j eye and a tooth fo.r a tooth." Then, let America go to work in earnest work with the soil. Let us not be satisfied with increased crops this season, but let us plan for even greater Increases for years to come, ' in order that the nations of the eartli may be fed and we still have enough left for our consumption. And when we produce it, let us conserve it and not waste it. If the experiences through which we are passing shall have the effect of teaching us a rational economy they will be well worth the price. It Is a lesson we need and should I heed. |